THEATER FINDS STAGE BUT NEEDS SPACE

The combined force of a fire and a landlord left the troupe looking for theater,office and classroom space.

The theater used the Royal Palm Dinner Theatre for Saturday morning performances and shows for school field trips during the week. It had leased office, classroom and rehearsal space at 137 SE First St. in Boca Raton, only blocks away from the dinner theater.

But a fire that damaged the Royal Palm Theatre on April 14 left Little Palm without a stage, and the lease for office space ends in June because the owner is turning it over to someone else.

Rent may increase at the same time the theater is losing a source of revenue.

Artistic director Darrell Hofheinz predicts the rent may double or triple because of the discount the original landlord offered. And the theater might not be able to draw the crowds it did at Royal Palm.

The theater's goal is to raise $25,000 over the next three months through appeals to its mailing list of 4,000 people and other appeals, as well as benefit shows.

Little Palm's annual budget is $135,000.

The good news for the theater is a restaurant/nightclub is loaning Little Palm space for the next two months for the Saturday shows. But because it does not have space for the school field trip shows, Little Palm will be losing a source of income, said Hofheinz.

And the theater has to scramble to find new office space for its four-member staff.

Its temporary home for performances is the Boca Cabana on Southwest 18th Street, west of Military Trail, west of Boca Raton.

Owner Joseph Cordero, also owner of Addison Restaurant, offered the space for free because the theater operates in the mornings on Saturdays while the restaurant/nightclub doesn't open until 4:30 p.m.

"It's an opportunity for us to show the restaurant off but also to help them in the meantime, " said Stuart Jones, Addison's manager. "It gives youth an opportunity to participate in something besides just sports and just hanging around friends, and I think it's important."

Little Palm will use the restaurant until Royal Palm reopens, sometime in the next two months.

As for offices, classrooms and rehearsal rooms, Hofheinz says the theater plans to keep its headquarters in Boca Raton unless an offer comes along that is impossible to resist.

The theater already operates a satellite theater in Boynton Beach at the city's Freedom Hall on Ocean Avenue. But since Freedom Hall is booked so far in advance, Little Palm could not expand its offerings at the Boynton Beach auditorium, Hofheinz said.

The Little Palm Theatre was started by Jan McArt and William "Doc" Peterson in 1978, soon after McArt started the Royal Palm Dinner Theatre. It became a separate entity soon after, run by Peterson until his death in 1991.

THEATRE PLANS

For more information on Little Palm Theatre, call its offices at 394-0308.

The shows will run every Saturday through May 15 at 9:30 a.m. at the Boca Cabana, 5994 SW 18th St. in the Shoppes of Village Pointe.

The current show is Princess and the Pea, based on the Hans Christian Andersen tale. Tickets are $6.